I don't remember actually the
first time I was here, but it seems like I've known all of
you a long time now. Brother Walter, I haven't spent
as much time with Brother Joe. I've heard you preach. I appreciate
your preaching, but I have spent some time with Brother Walter.
It's been good. It's been a real good penny.
You have two preachers. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Two true preachers, faithful preachers. Walter's been a blessing to our
congregation. He's been there a couple of times now. Our folks
fell in love with him, his preaching. God's people love us in spite
of us. Walter was talking about numbers, small numbers. The world equates success with
numbers, don't they? It's all wrong. It's all wrong. The truth has always been in
the minority. Always. The world goes after the false
gospel. The world believes Paul's for the God of this world,
his lies. But many are called, the scripture
says. This is what our Lord said, that
many are called. Paul said one time, have they
not all heard? But few are chosen. And if you're
here tonight and you believe the truth, you're a most blessed
person. You're a chosen remnant like
we sang about. One of God's elect. What a blessing.
And that's a great thing. I was listening to a man one
time talk about a church that the Lord was blessing with and
many conversions. He was talking about what a great
work the Lord was doing there. Well, if the Lord saves anybody, it's
a great thing. Do you know that Matthew Henry
thinks there were as many as three or four billion people
on the earth at the time of Noah's Ark? Eight people. And Noah, when
that ark was on the water, sailing along in God's hands, and they
were safe, pitched, shut in, he said, this is great. Isn't
this great? His whole family. a young man was bemoaning the
size of his little small congregation young preacher to an old preacher
one time and he said, the old preacher said, how many do you
preach to? He said, oh about fifteen. He said, that's fifteen
more than you want to give an account for in the judgment. And I'll never forget, I think
I told you this one time, I read John Newton as a young preacher,
and he was writing, he was good at letter writing, whether John
Newton, if you've read his letter, and he wrote many, many letters,
and he wrote to a young preacher one time, and he said, a man
would greatly overestimate his labors, his worth. if he did
not feel it worth his time, all his life, labor, to spend ten
thousand years laboring and preaching to one soul. One soul. So, this is great. Isn't this great? This vast crowd. Luke chapter twenty-four. Luke
chapter 24. It's an honor for me to be preaching
with Gabe, Brother Gabe Stoniker, my son-in-law. What a blessing
he has been to me. Preached for us for many years
and now pastor of a church in Kingsport. It's a blessing, an
honor to preach with him. The time of this story, most
of you know this story, and I'm sure Brother Walters preached
it to you, maybe Brother Joe, I'm sure Brother Earl Cochran
preached it. People here from Rocky Mount
heard me preach it just a few weeks ago. I heard my pastor
preach it many times. The one way that you know the
gospel is gospel to you. Gospel means good news. is if
the same old story is still good news. And you'll be happy to
know that I'm not going to say anything new. I don't have any
new doctrine. but the old, old story, the gospel.
This is an old story and a favorite of mine. The time of this story
is right after the Lord arose from the grave, right after he
was crucified, buried, and arose. I read a preacher one time, it
may have been Newton, that said, we should preach with such urgency and such passion that
we should preach as though Christ was crucified yesterday, buried
today, and coming again tomorrow. And He just might. That's how
urgent this is. Paul wrote it, didn't he? He
said, today is the day of salvation. Whenever the gospel is preached,
the gospel of our salvation, it's words of life. Another man
said, we ought to preach this gospel with such vehemence, such
urgency, as if it were our first message. And he said, we ought
to preach it as if it's our last, might be. And he said, we ought
to preach it as if it's going to be our best. Why shouldn't
it be? This is God's Word. He has promised.
He always causes us to triumph in Christ when we preach His
Word. Somebody is going to hear it.
Where two or three are gathered in Christ's name, He is going to
be there. In this story, two men were walking along on the
road to Emmaus in verse 13. It was from Jerusalem about three
score furlong seven miles long They walk along together, and
they talked together of all these things which had happened They
came to pass they communed together. They were walking together. They
were talking together They were together two men, and they communed
together. What did our Lord promise? where
two or three are gathered in His name. They're talking about
the Lord. They're talking about His crucifixion, His burial.
They don't know that He's risen. They're going to find out. But
they're talking about Him, and lo and behold, just as our Lord
promised, He met with them. Isn't this a good thing to get
together? Is there any place you'd rather be right now? The
world drives by like they did that tabernacle in the wilderness,
that little brown-skinned tent. The Hivites, the Hittites, the
Philistines had all their big temples to die in and all that.
And they drove by that tent in the wilderness and said, what?
There's nothing to that. That's the place where God met. If you go on the inside, you
see this kind of glory of God. And you come in this little place
and you're going to hear the glory of God in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is a good place to be. Where
two or three are gathered, truly gathered in His name. That means
for the glory of, for the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
that why you're here? If you are, the Lord has promised
to be. These men, they're walking along
a seven-mile journey, and it says in verse 17, we'll go on
down to verse 15. It came to pass as they communed
together in reason, Jesus himself drew near and went with them,
but their eyes were holding that they should not know him. He
was with them, but they didn't know it was him. We don't see him do it. But he
said, I'm there. This is not, in theory, his spirit. Christ is a man in a body who's
seated on the throne right now. But his Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of Christ, he promised. He said, I'm going to send you
another comforter. And then he said, I'm going to
come unto you. Which is it? Well, it's both.
These three are one. But wherever two or three are
gathered, the Spirit of Christ is with them and He takes the
things of Christ and shows them to His people for their comfort,
for the glory of Christ and for their comfort. And I hope, my
hope for you tonight is that you'll be comforted. that somebody
like these men may have the bread broken to them, the Word of God
open to them, that they might know Him. And those who do might
be comforted and consoled." They were sad, they were walking
along and they were sad. And the Lord said to them in
verse 17, what manner of communication are these that you have one to
another as you walk and are sad? They're sad. Now, in their defense,
and sometimes we're a little too hard on the disciples, especially
Simon Peter. I love Simon Peter. Don't you
love Simon Peter? I love all of his failures. I
love the fact that he spoke out at the wrong times, and I love
that the Lord wrote down how he, you know, they may leave
you, but I won't, and he denied the Lord in his failure. Don't
you love that? That gives me some hope. I've denied him many
times. and will yet tonight. I love
Simon Peter. I love their failures. That gives
this failure hope. But in their defense, their Lord
and their brother and their everything, their constant companion, their
provider, he became their father. These were grown men that became
like little children following the Lord Jesus Christ like little
children. He was their everything. He became
their life. And they saw Him dead. They saw
Him hang on a tree, brutally tortured and crucified. And they
saw His body, lifeless body, come down from that tree and
put in a grave. And they hadn't seen Him in a
few days. This was the saddest time of their life. We're reading the last chapter.
We're reading the end from the beginning. At this time, they
just didn't know. They're sad, as we would be. They're sad. The Lord of life,
their Lord, had died. You know, our doubts and fears,
our sadness is worse than theirs. We know that the Lord is risen. We know that the Lord is reigning
in ruin. David said in Psalm 42, didn't he? Why art thou cast
down, O my soul? Hope in God. He's living. You
know, we preach the Lord risen, don't we? Peter at Pentecost
preached the crucified, buried, and risen Lord and now seated
on the throne reigning and ruling. We preach a living Lord. Our
religion is not doctrine or creed or Calvinism. It's Christ, the
living Lord. And He's made Himself known to
His people. He really has. We're not trying
to convince people that He's alive. Only He, when He comes
to you, He's alive. He speaks to you. Christ said
that. My sheep hear my voice. So as to a preacher, they're
going to hear his voice and they're going to know he's living. He's
alive. Paul, every time Paul preached, didn't he? Every time
Paul preached, he preached a risen Lord, didn't he? because he wrote
in 1 Corinthians 15, this is the gospel I declare unto you,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture,
was buried and rose again the third day according to the scripture,
just like the scripture says he would. And he went on to say,
if Christ be not risen, our faith is vain. If Christ be not risen,
if in this life only we have hope and cry. If this is all
a concocted story, a fable, a Jewish fable, what are we doing here? We're wasting our time. And we're
of all men and women most miserable, aren't we? If today we live,
tomorrow we die, and this is it, what are we doing here? Let's
leave here. But Paul said, He is risen. Paul said, I met Him. He spoke
to me. Five hundred people at one time,
he said, heard Him. Everywhere he went, Paul preached
our risen Lord, reigning, ruling. And all of this, our risen, living,
reigning, ruling, sovereign Lord over all should allay all our
fear. It should. But we're so unbelieving
like these disciples. And our Lord appeared to them
and he said, what are you talking about? You're walking along and
are sad. Why are you sad? Why are you
sad? And, you know, when we meet together,
Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 1, I believe it is, 2, he said,
talked about Christ coming back for his people who meet the Lord
in the air, he said, comfort one another with these words.
Whenever we get together, We ought to comfort one another
with the good news. We shouldn't leave this place
sad. We come in sad because of our sin. You're out in the world,
you know, when you're with people of the world, and this is why
you need to, and for the life of me, I don't understand how
believers can spend much time with the people of the world.
Paul said, how can it? How can light have fellowship
with darkness? How can Christ have fellowship
with Baal? But if you do, I tell you what it's going to do, it's
going to bring you down. They're of the world and what
do they speak of? the world. That's all they're going to talk
about. Politics, finance. Is there anything good in the world?
Our Lord said all that is in the world, lest the flesh, lest
the eye, is not of God. Right of life. It's just sadness.
Look, is it Isaiah 8? It says they'll look to the earth
and there's nothing but darkness and dimness and anguish of spirit. But the next chapter, chapter
9 says, Oh, but the people that walked in darkness have seen
a great light. To them the light has shined.
Christ, the light has come. Christ, He's the one that bore
the sin of God's people in His body on a tree. He's the one
that was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He's the
one that was going to be forsaken of God. Yet all the time He was
cheering them up. all the time, he used to be of
good cheer. He told them, he warned them, you're going to
be in the world, you're going to have tribulations, but be of good cheer. It's my
world. If I had a text, it would be,
look at verse 37 and 38. If I had a title, it would be
this. Why are you sad? It's the Lord. Verse 37, they were terrified
and affrighted. Suppose they'd seen a spirit.
And he said, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts arise in your
heart? In other words, why do you always think the worst? We ought to think the best, shouldn't
we? Brethren, we know. We know this. We know it in our
heads. We need to know this in our heart,
that all things work together for what? Good. Our good Lord, our merciful Lord,
our loving, kind Heavenly Father is working all things together
for our good according to His purpose. Whatever He sends, it's
the Lord. No matter how painful, it's gonna
be good. And he said in verse 39, behold
my hands, my feet, his wounds that he suffered, it is I. It is I myself. It is I. Whatever it is, the Lord said,
it is I. Isn't that what Eli, how he took
comfort in, wasn't it? They came and told him the worst
news a father could hear, you're both your boys. He said, it's
the Lord. It's the Lord. They came and
told Job, you've lost everything. You've lost everyone and everything.
What did he say? It's the Lord. The Lord gave.
Why are you sad? It is I. Well, they said, look at verse,
one of them's name was Cleopas, verse 18. He said, are you a
stranger in Jerusalem? You're not from around these
parts. Haven't you known what's happened
and come to pass here in these days?" And he said, what things?
And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was
a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people.
This kind of tells me that these two men really didn't know the
Lord yet until he broke bread. They knew it until after he preached
from Moses to Malachi. A prophet That's what that blind
man John 9 said then. He didn't know the Lord. He didn't
even know if he was a sinner or not. But when the Lord said,
I'm he. I know, he said, Lord. And bowed
down. But they said he's a prophet
mighty indeed in word. The chief priests and our rulers
delivered him to be contended to death. Who delivered him?
Who delivered Christ to death? The Father delivered him. They did what God determined
before to be done. It couldn't have happened. Christ
said that. He kept telling His disciples yesterday. He kept
telling them that. They were around every time He
said the Son of Man was going to go to Jerusalem. He's going
to be delivered into the hands of wicked men. They're going
to take Him and crucify Him, bury Him, and the third day He's
going to rise again. He said it must happen. He said, no man
takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. This
is the command I've received of my Father. And I have power
to take it up again. I lay it down and I'm going to
pick it up again. Be of good cheer. How quickly we forget God's Word,
don't we? We hear it time and time again.
As many messages as I've heard. I venture to say I've heard as
many messages or maybe more than anybody in here. My daddy was
a preacher. Maybe not. Earl's a year older than me. I shouldn't have any doubts or
any fears. I've heard so much scripture,
so much truth. Undeniable. Irrefutable. The
Word of God, the Living Word. I've heard it and yet still I'm
full of doubts and fear. The Lord is so merciful and so
compassionate and knows their frame. And when He rebukes them
and rebukes His children, He does it with tenderness and compassion. I want to be that way, don't
you? I want to speak the truth in love. And he is going to rebuke
them, but he knows their frame. He knows they haven't seen him
yet. And they said, are you a stranger
here? And they said, we trusted, verse
21, that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. He did? You see, they reverted right
back to the Pharisees, you know. They thought Christ was coming
to set up Israel as a national kingdom again. And how many times
does Christ have to say what he says? We sing that song, what
more can he say to you than he has said? He said, my kingdom
is not of this world. He said, if it were, my servants
would fight. He said, the kingdom of God cometh
not with observation. You can look all you want to
for them to build a temple over there on the dome of the rock.
It won't matter if they build one or not. Christ is not coming
to that one. He has a temple, and you're it. It's an unseen kingdom. It's
an unseen kingdom. Christ is not coming to set foot
on this earth again. At First Thessalonians, I tried
to quote to you. It says, we'll meet the Lord
in the air. Like the story of Abraham's servant
that was sent to find a bride for Isaac. He told the servant,
he said, you're not bringing my son down there again. He's
not coming down here again. He's seated. He's seated. He's going to rise. And all the
saints are going to rise. He's going to come in the air.
Everybody's going to see Him in the air. And the graves are
going to rise. The people that are here are
going to rise to meet Him in the air. He's not going to be
seated on a throne in Jerusalem. He's already seated on the throne. They said, are you a stranger
here? Now who's talking like a stranger? Who's talking like
a stranger to the truth? And you know, that's us. When
we start murmuring, complaining, when we start talking about the
world in woeful terms, that is, worried about this and worried
about the economy, we're talking like strangers to the truth of
God. You know that? We have far too many fears and
doubts and worries for people that claim to believe that God
reigns and rules. No more. Far too many. Well, they said certain women
of our company came and told us that he was not in the grave
and it made us astonished. Certain women, what a lesson
in humility this is. The first woman that the Lord
appeared to was who? Mary Magdalene, the worst sinner. the chief of sinners. Who better
to appear to first than her? I believe she ran back to tell
the disciples. They didn't believe her. I thought
about this. I wonder what they really thought
of Mary Magdalene all those years she followed them. Probably not
very highly. The Lord appeared to her first.
He said, you go. The Lord gave this woman the
most blessed message to tell these apostles. Now where does
that put us preachers? We're a bunch of nobodies. They didn't believe them. If we despise the messenger,
we won't hear the message. And our Lord now, verse 25, he
gently rebukes them and says, oh fools. He tells us not to
call one another fools, doesn't he? Don't call your brother a
fool. You'll be in danger of the judgment.
Why is that? Because who's a fool and I'm
not a fool? To be a fool means to act stupidly. The old writers used to use that
word a lot. Don't be so stupid. That's not
politically correct now. But it really gets the point
across. It means you act like you don't have good sense. Act
like you don't know anything. Act like you haven't learned
anything. Act silly and childishly. And the Lord gently, lovingly,
and yet to convict them. Fools. Are you foolish? Are you
so foolish and slow of heart? You know, with a heart man believe
it. All that the prophets have spoken,
to him give all the prophets' witness. To Him give all the
properties. And our Lord said in verse 26,
now they don't know it's Him. He's going to start preaching.
They don't know it's Him. He's just a preacher. Just a preacher. When the Lord
ascended on high, He gave the greatest gift He could give to
men and women, to His people. Preachers. Didn't it? Gave some
prophets, some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and
teachers for the perfecting of the saint, edifying the body.
I was given a faithful pastor, so thankful for him. I met the
Lord through his preaching. I sure did. I heard the Lord's
voice told the people the other day, Wednesday night, that, you
know, He was just my dad for years. Just my dad. That was
my dad up there. Just my dad. It's your dad, you
know. And one day, it wasn't my dad. It was Jesus Christ speaking
to me. That's what He does. That's who He speaks through.
It is. Please God by the foolishness
of preaching. They think it's just a preacher. Oh my, what
a preacher. He said, ought not Christ have
suffered these things to enter into glory? Christ had to suffer,
that's why he came. And beginning at Moses, from
Moses and all the prophets, from Moses to Malachi. This was a
seven mile trip on foot. He starts preaching. He expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
All the Old Testament speaks of Christ. They are they which
testify of Him. That's what they're written.
That's who they're written about. It's His story. It's not Jewish
history. It's His story. You've said this
a thousand times. I still love it and you're going
to love hearing it again. This is a hymn book. It's all about
Him. Through Him, give all the prophets
witness. And our Lord began to preach
those Old Testament types. And boy, their hearts started
burning. You know, when we preach, the half is not told, isn't it? It was told when He told us.
Where did it begin? I know where it began. In the beginning, God. That's
where John began. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among it. The Word was with God. The Word was God. All things
were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. You know he preached that. And
he said, Man, Jesus Christ is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. Do you remember when he turned
that water into wine? Who can do that? You remember
when they broke the loaves and the fishes and multiplied them
and fed everybody? That's God, like Psalm 106 says. He opens his hand and feeds them
all. Then he went to chapter 3 of Genesis, didn't he? You
know he did. You know he preached the woman's
seed. He said, men, ask Mary. She'll tell you. She was a virgin.
An angel of God came to her and told her that holy thing that
was in her was of God. Because it must be virgin born. That holy thing. That holy child.
This is God's son. Not Mary's son. This is God's
son. She's a borrowed vessel. A borrowed tomb. A womb. Like
the tomb. She must, a virgin must have
God's son because he's to be made of a woman, made under the
law, he came to redeem them who are under the law. But he must
be holy or he can't save anybody. He must be the righteous one.
This is the holy one of God. You know he preached that. That's
the first message he preached to the first sinners. Christ
was the one that came and preached to them, wasn't he? You know
he preached that. Then where'd he go? Passover lamb? You know he preached
that, don't you, Brother Gay? You know he preached that. Gentlemen,
you saw Christ hanging on that cross? You saw Jesus of Nazareth
hanging on that cross? All that blood? Don't you remember
when John said, Behold the Lamb? That's the Lamb of God. You know
he might have preached Moses lifted up on a pole? He preached
that to Nicodemus, didn't he? He says, Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. That's the Lamb of God. When
that soldier came by, did you see him smite his side with that
spear and out came blood and water? That's justification.
That's sanctification. That's your Lamb. That's why
Christ came. Then where'd he go? Joseph and
his brethren? I thought, what do I deal with? Oh, my. What about Boaz, the
kinsman redeemer? Oh, my. And as he was preaching
to them, look at verse, their hearts were
burning, weren't they? They drew nigh, verse 28, they
drew nigh to the village where they went, and he made as though
he would have gone further. He acted like he was going to
walk on behind it. Oh, don't, please, don't. Buddy,
this is how you know when somebody, the Lord is dealing with somebody.
Can't get enough of the preaching. Can't get enough of it. Please
don't go. You've only been preaching six hours. Seriously. How many times have you heard
somebody say to you, I thought you just quit, and they thought,
I thought you just got started. That's how you know. It's living,
it's real. The Word of God is a living Word. And they constrain Him, saying,
abide with us. You want Christ to abide with
you? And they still don't know this is Christ, but this is His
preacher, and they love and they esteem Him so highly for His
work's sake, for the Gospel's sake. They say, come in, we're
going to feed you, we're going to house you. Our Lord, didn't our, you just
read that. He said, here's you, here's me. He that receiveth
you, receiveth me. And he went in and came to pass as he sat
at me with him, he took bread and blessed it and break it and
gave to them, their eyes were opened. Hallelujah. We sing that
song, don't we? Break thou the bread of life,
dear Lord to me, as you broke the loaves beside the sea. And
they knew him. The last time they broke bread
with him, Remember, it was in the upper room. And he said,
take, eat, this is my body broken for you. They didn't understand.
They just didn't understand. Joe, they do now. See, if you
ever finally understand who Christ really is, why Christ came, He
didn't come to set up an earthly kingdom. He came to set up an
eternal spiritual kingdom. And He didn't come to try to
save anybody. He came to save His people. And
He did just that. He finished the work. And when
His work was finished, He took off His work clothes. He took
off His body, didn't He? Laid in the tomb. Went back to
glory. I believe He took that blood
and poured it on the mercy seat, don't you? Into the Holy of Holy.
And He came back and assumed His glorified body. Work's over. Done. It's all over with the
shouting. That's why he came. If you ever realize who he is,
why he really came, where he is now, and he's coming again
soon, your sadness will be over. Your sadness will be over. And
they rose up and they ran. I believe they ran. They got
to Emmaus seven miles on foot. And they jumped up and ran back
to Jerusalem. You know that? They ran seven
miles. Five minute pace, David. Couldn't
get there quick enough to tell them. He's alive. Buddy, if the
Lord appears to you, you'll tell others what to do. And our Lord
came, and he appeared to them, stood in the midst of them, and
he said unto them, verse 36, this is what he said to them
every time. Appeared to them three times.
Peace be unto you. Peace. Peace by the blood of
his cross. Peace with God. Peace of mind. Let the peace of God rule in
you. Because Christ, who is our peace,
reigns and rules. And he said, peace. But they
were terrified in the fright and they supposed they'd seen
a spirit. And he said, why are you troubled? Why do thoughts
arise in your heart? Why do you always think the worst?
Anybody guilty of that? Always think the worst. We ought
to think the best. Poor old Jacob. Poor old Jacob. He was in Goshen
at the time, an old man. He said, few and evil have been
the days of my life. No, there haven't been, Jacob.
Why are you talking like that? It's all been good. And he showed
them his scars and he said, it is I myself. A spirit doesn't
have flesh and bones as you see me have. You know there's a man
in glory? The Lord Jesus Christ, a man in glory? And they came,
and at the end of this chapter, I don't have time, but they came
and it says they carried him up. He didn't sprout wings. A
multitude, I don't know who it was, I wonder who it was that
the Lord said, go carry the Lord. Oh, don't you know they were
all volunteering. Here am I, send me. And they
carried him up like they're great, like the ark was carried on the
shoulder. They carried him up, a man in glory. He sat down at
the right hand of the majesty on high and that's where he is
right now. And they stood there watching him. Ascend up into
heaven real life man flesh and blood man in a body this same
Jesus is coming back As you've seen him go and he went back
in the heaven and the clouds Rolled back again where they
couldn't see but though they could see him they could see
Now I can finally see with the eye of faith you see him John.
I sure do Look at him seated Do you see him? with the eye of faith, though
the clouds obscure Him. Right now, our living Lord is
seated in the heavens and He's coming again for you. He's going
to carry you. He's going to carry you up into
His bosom. Do you believe that? These men
do now. They do. May the Lord bless His
Word.